'It's the insects that save us all’
This article is an adaptation of our weekly Animals newsletter that was originally sent out on February 11, 2021. Want this in your inbox? Sign up here.
By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor
Joel Sartore is used to his portraits of tigers, sloths, and colorful birds getting all the attention. How can you not be drawn to the curious head-tilt of the arctic fox or the human-like gaze of an orangutan and her adopted daughter?
One reason he founded the National Geographic Photo Ark—a multiyear effort to photograph every species in zoos and sanctuaries around the world—was to bring that same level of attention to overlooked and underappreciated species. His intimate portraits, all photographed on stark black or white backdrops, make a humble sparrow and an unpretentious turtle look just as charismatic and striking as a mountain lion or cheetah.
And that’s why, to mark the 11,000th species added to the Photo Ark, he chose a moth. A fairly standard-looking, inch-long, brown moth (pictured above). But while it may look average, the long-toothed dart moth encapsulates what the Photo Ark is all about.
Until now, no one had photographed this moth alive since it was first scientifically described in 1890, and no one knows how many are left. Sartore, unable to travel to far-flung sanctuaries and zoos because of COVID-19 restrictions, began combing the prairies of his home state, Nebraska, and neighboring states last year for insects to add to the ark. After photographing the drab little moth near Santa Fe, he sent the photo to Bob Biagi, at the species-identification website BugGuide.
“We have been waiting for your image for at least 130 years,” he told Sartore.
Sartore, a Nat Geo Fellow, told our Christine Dell’Amore that he chose a moth for the milestone to highlight the crucial role insects play as crop pollinators and scavengers that break down waste. Insects contribute some $70 billion a year to the U.S. economy alone, she writes, but at the same time, many studies show that insects are rapidly disappearing. “The mammals get all the press—the gorillas, the tigers—but it’s the insects that save us all,” Sartore told her.
And so, despite the pandemic, Sartore keeps adding to the Photo Ark—insect after insect.
Learn about the National Geographic Society’s work to conserve and protect species through programs like the National Geographic Photo Ark.
YOUR INSTAGRAM PHOTO OF THE DAY
Not scary! Walking along woods in the Ozarks, photographer Terra Fondriest’s daughter felt something race across her bare foot. Hunkered under foliage was a tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzi), a native critter not commonly seen. A neighbor, 10-year-old Kyler, had watched his dad pick them up before, so he gave it a try. It crawled right onto his hand and slowly up to his head (pictured above). “We let it walk back into the woods soon after,” Terra said. The Texas brown tarantula ranges from Kansas and Missouri south and west to Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Arizona. The tarantula is docile and harmless to humans.
Also: So who wants to give a trafficked, confiscated tarantula a home?
TODAY IN A MINUTE
Shooing away vultures: It’s not as easy as you think. For months, more than a hundred black vultures perching around an Alabama middle school have creeped out some of the students and staff. But the community balked at the plan to shoot a few and hanging their remains upside down to scare the others away. It’s a real, scientifically proven dispersal method, but as it turns out, there are all kinds of ways to scare off the scavengers, from fireworks and air cannons to lasers and balloons with giant eyes painted on, Elizabeth Ann Brown finds.
Finding deadly spiders: That’s what an Australian reptile park is asking ordinary citizens. Why? Because the nation needs the funnel web spider’s venom to make an antidote for the unlucky people who get bitten. But isn’t this dangerous? Only adults who judge it safe to do so should attempt to catch the shiny, dark-colored spiders, which can rear up if threatened, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Experts suggest using a big glass jar and keeping your hands away from the spider.
Reintroducing lynx? A British environmental group is trying to release the Eurasian wildcats in a forest in northeastern England. The plan to reintroduce the species, extinct in England for 1,400 years, aims to help control rising deer populations, the BBC reports. However, sheep farmers oppose the move.
Welcome to halibut and scallops: Much of the fish America eats passes through New Bedford, Massachusetts, the onetime whaling capital of the world. Unlike meat-packing plants in the Midwest, the fish processing plants of this port have been spared the brunt of the pandemic. The city largely escaped the deadly Spanish influenza a century ago, and it has used its knowledge of past pandemics to its benefit today. “Seaports have a fundamental built-in understanding of quarantine,” Michael Dyer, a curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, tells Nat Geo. “Part of being a seaport, in any part of the world, is the reality of bringing in diseases.” (Pictured above, scaling a fresh fish at New Bedford’s Foley Fish processing plant.)
Hiding from humans: A small medicinal herb in southwest China, once easily spotted by its single vibrant flower and leaves, is growing brown and gray in places where humans often pluck them. Scientists suspect the plant is genetically evolving drabber parts to hide from its main predator—humans, Nat Geo’s Sarah Gibbens reports. A new study says the plant’s camouflaging is popping up in areas where it is more likely to be harvested. The Fritillaria delavayi is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat bronchitis and coughs.
THE BIG TAKEAWAY
We love/hate the grizzly: Americans fought to save grizzly bears. Now that their numbers are bouncing back, they come into contact with humans a lot more—and that means more grizzly attacks. “Don’t expect that just because you’re outside [Glacier] or Yellowstone that you’re not going to see a grizzly bear,” veteran bear biologist Chris Servheen tells Nat Geo. It’s up to humans to learn to coexist with the bruins as they reoccupy their former range in the Northern Rockies, he says. That means carrying bear spray, hiking in groups, and not leaving food or garbage outside unsecured. (Pictured, via a camera trap, splashing and frolicking at a water hole.)
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THE LAST GLIMPSE
The world’s biggest owl: Only found in the wild in the Russian Far East and parts of Asia, the Blakiston’s fish owl is the size of a fire hydrant and can spend hours singing a synchronized four-note duet with its partner. But habitat is disappearing for the endangered raptors, known for their intense yellow eyes and showy ear tufts. Russian researchers such as Rada Surmach are hoping to launch a captive-breeding program to bolster the owl’s numbers. “Every time I explain this is the biggest owl and it lives in our forest,” she tells Nat Geo, “people get really excited.” (Pictured above, a female, its ear tufts erect, preparing to fly in March 2008).
This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, with photo selections by Jen Tse. Kimberly Pecoraro and Gretchen Ortega helped produce this newsletter. Have an idea or a link? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. And thanks for reading.
